In October 2010, when a more strategic approach to infrastructure was becoming ever more pressing, the UK's first ever national infrastructure plan was published. This was a victory in itself and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) was further heartened by the updated version published alongside the autumn statement last year.

The upcoming budget provides a real opportunity for the government to address this for the future; realising the full potential of the national infrastructure plan and translating its promises into outcomes that benefit our society and economy. We wrote to the chancellor this week suggesting a raft of measures that could help with achieving this.

Ministerial accountability is one of the key calls we put forward. Steps must be taken to ensure that the words of the plan are delivered, both to the letter and in spirit. The creation of a cabinet committee under the chief secretary to the Treasury to oversee delivery of the top 40 projects identified in the plan is a great step forward. But we are concerned that no senior minister has overarching responsibility for the government's performance against the full commitments in the plan.

ICE also called for government to create a set of simple performance measures for infrastructure that are regularly and independently assessed. The reporting against these should be in a manner that engages public, political and industry interest, as is already the case with economic, crime, education and health data. This will be vital in ensuring the government resists the temptation towards woolliness or obfuscating over outcomes.

There should also be a focus on improving the credibility of the government's aspirations for attracting private investment. We have suggested actions such as a public assessment of the level of funding the government believes it can realistically secure from different categories of investors such as pension funds and a programme of work to be carried out to unlock these funds.

Finally, the government must monitor, assess and regularly publish against indicators, milestones and outcomes through an independent body such as a National Infrastructure Plan Forum, to avoid uncertainty over progress which could undermine the credibility of the plan.

It's plain to see that the intention behind most of these measures is to hold the government to account on its progress both in terms of achieving the milestones in the plan itself and of its efforts to attract private investment, without which we can't hope to deliver the new and upgraded infrastructure that we need.